Radio Clube de Pernambuco

By Herrn Bernd Kielmann

The following item is taken from page 7 of the September 1973 edition of SPEEDX.
It is placed here with permission of SPEEDX.

In 1919, a group of Recife radio amateurs met in an agricultural high
school building, with the aim of creating a radio club. On October 17th, 1919, the newspaper Salao Nobre des Diario de Pernambuco was the site for the founding of the organization - with the goal of listening to and studying various aspects of broadcasting. The club met weekly until 1922, when Sr. Oscar Moreira Pinto returned from Europe with a 20 watt and 25 watt LEVY transmitter, a Crosley receiver, and a head full of ideas about broadcasting.

Sr. Pinto became acquainted with the radio club, and in 1923 the "Radio Society of Rio de Janeiro" was founded. But even before the founding of the Radio Society, Radio Clube was on the air - becoming the first radio broadcasting station in Latin America*. The programs were irregular, and couldn't be heard across town. But how could they? The transmitter was of simple design and construction, and the microphone was round, shaped almost like a bowling pin

On October 17th, 1923, exactly four years after their initial meeting, the group met again at the Diario de Pernambuco to establish laws which would govern the Rddio Clube. Headquarters for the Radio Clube were at Rua Luiz do Rego #394, and in 1928, headquarters were moved to Rua da Aurora #55 because the Radio Clube couldn't pay the rent at the former address. They had moved in with Telegrafo Nacional (National Telegraph Company). Now, the programs of the Radio Clube were transmitted using a mast on top of the Diario de Pernambuco building.

1924 was a good year for Radio Clube. Oscar Pinto installed a new trans-
mitter; a Lucien-Levy with 500 watts. Yet it was still broadcasting by a
group of amateurs. Friends of the amateurs served as announcers, some
time singers or comedians. Money was always a short commodity at Radio
Clube. But those that wanted to work always had their hands full. Floriano
Costa was the secretary, technician, and helper in various ways. Utavio
Saraiva was the senior announcer, but at the same time served as the bureau
chief and telephone operator. The programming had progressed to 2 hours,
three times a week. Slowly, program quality improved. In 1926, the call letters were changed to SQAC.

One day, Oscar Moreira Pinto ran exitedly into the studio. Why? Radio Clube was audible in Jaboatao, some 30 miles from Recife. In 1931, a new two kiloWatt transmitter was installed, and on February 26, 1931, the call letters were changed to APRAP. The years passed, and the call letters were again changed, this time to PRA8, when a Cinephon transmitter began beaming programs on both medium and shortwaves. It was 1939.

Shortly before the death of Sr. Oscar Moreira Pinto on December 20th, 1943, Radio Clube was purchased by Dierios Associados. On June 4, 1960, the television era came to Radio Clube, when a 25 kW television transmitter began operation on Channel 6. Only last April, did Channel 6 begin to operate in color.